ITV has blamed Brexit for the dip in its advertising revenues which was announced as part of its full-year results statement this morning.

The maker of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!, The Chase and Love Island said its net advertising revenue for 2016 was 3 per cent lower than the previous year’s total at £1.67billion.

Shares in the broadcaster were trading 1.4 per cent up at 205.5p by mid morning in response to the results, implying a stock market value for the company of £8.27billion.

Ant and Dec host one of ITV's most successful TV series; I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!

Chief executive Adam Crozier pointed the finger at the United Kingdom’s decision to exit the European Union and other political developments as reasons for the revenue fall.

'ITV delivered a good performance in 2016 as we continue our strategy of rebalancing and strengthening the business creatively, commercially and financially,' he said. ‘The continued growth in revenue and adjusted profit, despite a 3 per cent decline in spot advertising revenues resulting from wider political and economic uncertainty, is clear evidence that our strategy is working and remains the right one for ITV.’

On brighter note, total revenue from activities other than advertising was up 11% on last year to £1.85billion.

Other positive numbers delivered by the TV company within this included its content production wing ITV Studios achieving a 13 per cent rise in revenue to £1.39billion, while revenue from its online, pay and interactive activity was up 23 per cent to £231million.

The broadcaster also proposed a final dividend of 4.8 pence per share, bringing the full year dividend to 7.2 pence, up 20 per cent on last year. A further boost for shareholders came in the form of a special dividend of 5 pence per share, equating to a total pay-out of just over £200million.

Senior market analyst at ETX Capital Neil Wilson saw the numbers as ‘solid’ overall but he has some concerns over the company’s prospects this year.

‘Solid enough results from ITV today reassuring investors a touch about the prospects for the year ahead, but all of the same old doubts remain,' he said. ‘The first fall in ad sales since the financial crisis should be a cause for concern – just as well ITV is diving headlong into content production to keep up with cord cutters. ITV expects NAR to decline 6 per cent in the first four months of the year as uncertainty over the economy weighs heavily.'

'This is pretty much as expected,' he continued. 'Cost savings are offsetting this to an extent but with Article 50 about to be triggered – and all the likely uncertainty that will create – it’s going to be hard to see this pick up meaningfully throughout the rest of 2017.’

Something else for investors to consider is that ITV has been flagged as a takeover target for larger, content-hungry peers, particularly those in the United States. Should an offer be made a steep rise in the share price would be likely.

'There is still the spectre of a takeover,' Wilson noted. 'ITV remains a prime target and until a bid is made we will continue to be talking about it. This should continue to act as a floor under the share price even while ad sales drop.'

George Salmon, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, was also less than certain the company will have an easy time growing its revenues this year.

‘Despite the rise of ITV Studios, which diversifies the business geographically and provides non-advertising revenue, ITV is still heavily dependent on the cash it generates from selling its ad space,' he said. ‘This brings concern on two fronts. The first, that customers are less likely to splash out on TV ad campaigns when the economic outlook is uncertain, is hopefully a short term worry. The second problem, however, is potentially more endemic.'

The Share Centre’s investment research analyst Helal Miah was more upbeat. ‘ITV sees a good pipeline of investment opportunities across the group, both organically and through acquisitions,’ he noted. ‘As a result of today’s results, we continue to recommend ITV as a ‘buy’ for medium risk investors with a balanced portfolio, but would suggest investor’s drip feed, at least until the situation for advertising rates becomes a little clearer.’